Smartphone: yes or no? And above all: when? Any parent asks this question when a child begins to grow up and the mobile phone makes its way into his or her life, willy-nilly. Banning it puts his social relationships at risk. But at the same time, the internet and social networks are dangerous traps for a personality still in the making. It is no coincidence that there is discussion of banning them for younger people: the European Commission has promised a ban for those under 13, and limited access up to 15. Is he right? Or is it an excessive demonization of an instrument that is all in all neutral, as critics of the rule claim?
Food for thought comes from research just published on Jama Network Open by a team of pediatricians from the University of California in San Francisco, which highlighted a marked correlation between owning a smartphone before the age of 13 and the appearance of eating disorders.
Children and social networks
The survey is based on data from a large American study that is monitoring the development of so-called “gen Z” adolescents and their mental health. The researchers examined participants’ digital habits at age twelve, a time that often coincides with entry into secondary school and the profound physical and psychological changes associated with puberty.
The analysis showed that almost seventy percent of the twelve-year-olds involved in the study already owned a personal smartphone by the time they turned 12. And that autonomous use of the device was associated with a greater incidence of signs attributable to eating disorders, such as episodes of binge eating or a marked concern about one’s body weight. The sample was followed over time to evaluate the evolution of these behaviors after two years.
Data on risks at fourteen years
Monitoring carried out at the age of fourteen made it possible to quantify the medium-term impact of early access to technology. Adolescents who received a smartphone at age twelve had an overall 49 percent higher risk of reporting eating disorder symptoms than their peers who did not have one.
Among the most common disorders that emerged from the analysis, in first place is the tendency of children to evaluate their personal worth based on body weight, a problem that was more than doubled in the group with early access to the devices. The authors specify, however, that the study measures self-reported symptoms via questionnaires and does not identify formal clinical diagnoses, but still highlights a worrying trend linked to unfiltered exposure to digital environments.
Social network effect?
Although the study cannot demonstrate a direct cause-and-effect relationship between smartphones and eating problems, the authors underline that many studies have already linked the onset of psychological disorders to early and uncontrolled exposure to online content. And it is no coincidence that in recent years an increase in the incidence of eating disorders has been recorded between the ages of 15 and 19, especially – but not exclusively – in the female gender. The researchers point out that the use of social networks, often accessible without adequate parental supervision, exposes very young people to constant aesthetic pressures, constant comparisons with idealized body models and unhealthy group dynamics, amplified by the internet.
“Our results are interesting, given that preadolescence, a period in which self-regulation is still maturing and sensitivity to the social environment is increased, coincides with puberty, a phase in which the risk of suffering from eating disorders increases.”